


Oblivion

by torasame



Category: Naruto
Genre: M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-18
Updated: 2019-10-18
Packaged: 2020-12-22 19:02:31
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,760
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21081563
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/torasame/pseuds/torasame
Summary: Itachi's recountment of meeting death and learning what it really means to be alive.





	Oblivion

**Author's Note:**

> 내 친구의 고양이를 위해 ㅋㅋ  
day 6: afterlife

> _ when oblivion, is calling out our name _
> 
> _ you always take it further _
> 
> _than i ever can_
> 
> _-oblivion, B∆STILLE_

At four years old, he had been acquainted with death. He saw it in the bodies strewn in mem across a desolate land with cold blood trying to cool the burning ground. Death outstretched it's hand to him, guiding his kunai to meet skin- blade to meet throat. Itachi saw death briefly and death smiled down upon the boy. He was one of the few that stared back with hollow eyes, one of the ones who did not fear it like the others did.

At four years old, Itachi had stared it square in the eyes as he stood at the edge of the cliff. He took one step forward, following Death's ever speeding descent. He had found no purpose in life when it would just be taken away. If only he had known death had been as perplexed about him as he was with it. He imagined death sighed, watching his ever plummeting body, waiting to add his name to his list. Such a shame, the boy seemed promising. Once again, Itachi stared death in the face and defied it. His kunai pierced the side of the cliff, carving parallel lines into it in guiding his descent. Death almost smiled down on him and left when a raven approached the boy. It would not bother him for many years.

* * *

"Breathe, Itachi."

He let out a breath he did not know he had been holding. He's aware of the hand he had in his own, he held onto it as though he would fall if he let go. Death met Itachi in the form of a man with an orange mask. He could still feel the warm blood that splattered against his eyelids- he almost it seeped in and bled into his sharingan. Death had finally managed to pull something in the eight year old boy. Itachi felt as though he was drowning in the newfound guilt and fear.

The vision of Death in the orange mask faded away when he met Shisui's eyes. The older held his arms out and Itachi's body fell into them without hesitation. Shisui answered his questions about life and talked to him about the complexity of death. He listened when no one else could, understood when they couldn't. To him, Shisui was the epitome of being  _ alive- _ he didn't merely  _ exist.  _ That's what Itachi concluded about life.

At eight years old, Itachi had met Death in the form of a man with an orange mask.

At eight years old, Itachi met Life in the form of a boy who held him when the world got too dark. He met Life in the form of a boy who taught him what it meant to be alive.

* * *

At thirteen, everything began to blur together. He's seen the man he called Death in the shadows of the Uchiha shrine. He's seen him lurking in the shade of the trees only to vanish like a ghost. He'd see both Death and Life in the same day he felt as though his world had shifted on its axis trying to keep up. His and Shisui's affiliations with the ANBU did not fair him any better with the constant anxiety that plagued them when they were seperated- fearing both Death and Life would meet resulting in only one outcome.

At thirteen, he had taken the fragile balance of life and death on his shoulders. The village and the clan were caught in a vicious game that was a move away from a stalemate and another away from a victor of either one. No, he thought to himself, he shook the dust the clan had put over his eyes, the village was a move away from winning. Itachi was the time keeper that was running out of time and the game master who had no say in the game between the adults. His omnipotence drove him up the wall.

He was just a boy trying to show everyone the importance of life and how it could not and should not be thrown away for matters such as pride. He had been death's advocate in maintaining what the village called peace and yet they threw these things back and forth between them like cards on a gambling table. They gambled much more than they had- that was the first step to disaster.

Shisui proposed a solution, he took Itachi's wandering soul and led it off the fork in the road- the paths the village and the clan laid out for them. In Shisui's eyes, he found the aftermath of death. Life could only be valued from the notions of Death. For the first time in Itachi's thirteen years of existence, he was afraid. He was afraid because he had finally put hope in something- in someone.

Death did not have to pull any strings in this affair.

Shisui had returned with death in his bloodstream and life bleeding from his eye. His Life stood, with his back to the world behind them on the cliff they had claimed as their own- the cliff that served as a testament to how they defied Death. And now, it served as the proof that Death had triumphed.

For the first time in his thirteen years of existence he sobbed, with all the emotions he had suppressed for so long. He cried like the boy he was never allowed to be. He mourned for the love and life he had lost. He ached and choked on his gasps of air. 

Itachi seemed to be four years old again as he collapsed to the ground, wishing Death would materialize and take him back to Shisui.

* * *

"Breathe, Shisui."

Shisui was fifteen and growing colder in his arms. The remnants of his last smile were erased from his lips. There was nothing warm about the blood that ran down Shisui's empty eye sockets. Death had finally moved the thirteen year old boy. Itachi felt dry and empty after offering all he had to bribe death into taking him as well. Death did not listen to prayers.

Itachi shifted the boy in his arms, it was his turn to hold him after all. It was his turn to listen to Shisui's questions about life. It was his turn to show remind Shisui about what it meant to be alive.

At thirteen, Itachi had spotted Death lingering in the shadows.

At thirteen, death took away the boy he had found Life in. Death left him nothing else but his existence.

* * *

"It's time." Itachi stared into the abyss in Death's orange mask.

Death's shadow fell upon him as he plagued the once prestigious Uchiha clan. His eyes no longer held any ounce of life as the blood of all those he's lost bled together into the ever infamous  _ mangekyou sharingan. _

In the midst of the slaughter only one life remained, tainted but untouched. At thirteen, Itachi realized he had once found another Life eight years ago- when his little brother had made it into the grueling world. Sasuke would have a purpose to live, as Death promised him, but Sasuke would live to one day kill Itachi.

He took one last look at his brother, gazing down the path of both Life and Death set out before him. Itachi had changed the sign posts to one day show Sasuke the way to the Life he could never have. It was the last thing he could do before he remained under Death's wings and succumbed to the darkness.

* * *

Itachi was eighteen when he returned to a place so lost in time. He could still picture the blood drying on the grass, and where Shisui had stood. He gazed from his vantage point over the cliff, with the echoes of his screaming ringing loudly as he called out for him. Death continues to laugh at him when he sees the stone with a name that he buried six feet under into the most secluded corners of his heart. To the rest of the world, Shisui had existed- but Itachi was the only one who understood that Shisui had lived.

His brother's eyes that were once so full of life were now filled with hatred and the thrust of death. The sign posts had been blurred and we're swept away by the storm of vengeance that washed over Sasuke.

_ His eyes had not changed from when he was thirteen _ , Itachi thought to himself when Sasuke materialized before him.

Death spectated the reunion of the brothers and the match they fought out to settle the score once and for all. There was no fear, no naivety or sentiments such as life in such a match.

At twenty one, Itachi knew it was over. He trotted over to the sixteen year old Sasuke, who's eyes that were full of fear had managed to let the life seep through. Death was drawing closer and closer to him with every step he took. Death could see nothing but triumph in his wake, Itachi had done well and he was satisfied.

But with the simple poke of his beloved little brother's forehead, a gesture that spoke of a  _ next time _ a  _ tomorrow _ \- a gesture that reminded one of the life that was still ahead, the reigns of Death broke Itachi free. Death could do nothing but watch in astonishment when Itachi Uchiha had defied him once more.

Death smiled upon him once more.

He cleared Itachi's vision, for that brief moment, and Itachi had finally truly seen his brother's face for the first time in thirteen years.

At twenty one, Itachi's vision of the man in the orange mask faded away into dust. He saw his parents, waiting for him in the ever closing distance. He felt Sasuke's presence leave him as he entered into a plain his brother could not follow. Death dissipated, leaving nothing but the eyes he had not seen in a lifetime.

Shisui held his arms out and Itachi's aching body fell into them without hesitation.

* * *

"Tell me about Uncle Itachi, Papa." Sasuke peered over his shoulder to see Sarada settling her arrangement of flowers on the two stones that lay before them. She looked up at him with vibrant eyes full of life.

Sasuke gestured for her to stand by him. "I guess there is only one thing I can tell you right now, Sarada. He  _ lived. _ He didn't just exist." He poked her forehead lightly. "That's something you'll have to know more about next time."

  
  
  
  
  


**Author's Note:**

> i know i focused on death and stuff but I wanted to have it do that and only highlight a bit of the afterlife if you catch my drift.


End file.
